Sunday, 29 September 2013

Slow roast shoulder of pork

A great Sunday roast with friends. I've adapted two recipes- one that is a slow cook in the oven and another that is a much longer one in the slow cooker. This means that the meal can be cooked overnight mainly so can be ready for midday lunch but has a blast at the start and the end in the oven to crisp up the skin.

Begin with the marinade- get a whole bulb of garlic and put in all the cloves (microwave for 30 seconds and the skins just slip off). Add 100ml vegetable oil, juice of 3 lemons and 2 tsps of smoked paprika.

Blitz it all together.

Put the joint on a rack over a tray and baste with the marinade. If you have time leave this overnight in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C and roast the joint for 30 mins til the skin starts to puff up and crackle.

Line the base of your slow cooker with chopped potatoes.

Place the roast on top of the potatoes that will act like a trivet.

Baste with the remaining marinade.

Pour in 175ml of white wine.

Then just put on the lid and cook for 10 hrs (if you want it for lunchtime I use a timer switch for it to come on at the right time in the night).

When the time is up, line the base of a roast dish with some red onions and carrots (chopped into large chunks) again to act as a trivet. Put the joint in the middle and put the potatoes round the edge and roast again at 200 degrees for 30 mins to puff up the cracking. The meat will be very tender and will fall apart with just a fork.

Or you can leave the meat and potatoes to rest and take off the crackling. Remove the excess fat and put in a hot oven for about 15-20 minutes to crisp up.

The juices from the bottom of the slow roaster can be poured into a pan and boiled to thicken and then add some flour to thicken some more - a very easy gravy.